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CNET Editors' Rating

The GoodFlipboard is a great way to read the latest headlines and connect with social networks, providing a magazine-style layout you can flip through with a swipe of your finger.

The BadFlipboard, while beautiful, is not efficient for getting through multiple news sources quickly.

The Bottom LineWith tons of customization options and a unique magazine-style interface, anyone looking for a better way to browse the latest news and social info should definitely download this app immediately.

Review Sections

Editors' note: This review has been updated with more information from the latest version released October 29.

Flipboard (iOS|Android) is a neat visual newsreader and social network hub that lets you organize the info you want to look at, then flip through it like you would a magazine. The app lets you create custom magazines from the sources you like most so you can browse through your favorite topics, share your magazine with others, or find magazines about topics you're interested in created by other users.

In the latest update, Flipboard makes finding new topics much easier by browsing or via search, and includes a Daily Edition of curated content so you can get the most important headlines quickly.

Flipboard has remained one of top newsreaders on mobile since it first released in 2012 because it does a great job of using the touchscreen to its advantage. With only gestures and swipes, you can flip through the "pages" of topics you like the most, and the ability to connect to social networks means stories from your friends on Facebook, Twitter and several other networks get peppered in among more conventional news stories.

Getting started

Get started by creating an account with Flipboard, then (optionally) sign in to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You also have the option to connect with your LinkedIn, Tumblr, Instagram, Google+, YouTube and several other accounts if you want to pull in content from any of these networks.

Once you're all signed in, Flipboard presents you with a bunch of topics and you can pick the ones you're most interested in. You can pick general topics such as tech and sports or get more specific by choosing iPhone or Basketball, as examples. Once you're finished, Flipboard displays the first story and you can tap to read it or swipe upwards to move on to the next story.

Across the bottom of the app are the main buttons for navigation. The home button brings you to the first story of all the categories you picked in the beginning. But touching the second button gives you panels of all the categories you picked. Here, you have buttons across the top to look at all categories, people you follow (more on this later), more topics you can add, and a button for connecting more social accounts.

Touching a panel lets you browse through any of the default categories. But touching and holding a panel lets you delete or move it wherever you want. There's an enormous amount of content to choose from, making it possible to customize Flipboard with only the types of stories you want.

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The Daily Edition is delivered to you in the morning and lets you browse through the top stories by category.
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET

The Daily Edition

New to the latest version of Flipboard, the Daily Edition is a curated collection of news that comes each morning at 7:00 a.m. local time. Each page has the top two or three headlines in the category, and you can tap on a headline to read more. Swiping upward is little different in the Daily Edition because you're not moving story by story, but topic by topic. So you start with the top headlines, then a swipe up takes you to the day's Cover Story, then further swipes bring you to a Business Digest, Tech Report, Sports Roundup and more so you can browse through headlines sort of like a newspaper.

It's a really cool addition to the Flipboard app because it gives you the ability to jump in on your commute and get the latest headlines from the topics you care about.

Jason Parker has been at CNET for nearly 15 years. He is the senior editor in charge of iOS software and has become an expert reviewer of the software that runs on each new Apple device. He now spends most of his time covering Apple iOS releases and third-party apps.
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